| How did settlers in the Old West really know | | | | as time zones were pretty casual. In a fascinating |
| what time it was? Did they keep close track of | | | | book about everyday life in the Old West written |
| the hours and minutes? And whose "time" was | | | | by a British author in the 1950s, "The Look of the |
| considered the "right" time in the many small | | | | Old West," time zones really never came into |
| towns and farms spread across the American | | | | existence in the East or the West until the |
| West? | | | | railroads grew in influence, spread across the |
| Industrial nations rely on keeping track of time | | | | nation and worked to standardize time. In fact, |
| and doing it accurately. Today's atomic clocks that | | | | according to that British writer William |
| track time in millionths of seconds are testimony | | | | Foster-Harris, the nation ran on agreed upon local |
| to that. Even today's cheap wristwatches available | | | | time until railroad influence finally standardized time |
| at local "Big Box" stores are accurate to within a | | | | zones in 1883. The federal government approved |
| few seconds a year. But have you ever | | | | their time zone set up soon after. |
| wondered how someone living in Wyoming, | | | | But back in our 1855 scenario, local time was |
| Nebraska, California, or Colorado would have | | | | generally based on marking "high noon," the time |
| known what time it was in 1855? | | | | when the sun was directly overhead and cast |
| Certainly clocks and watches were readily | | | | either no shadow or the shortest observed |
| available to most Westerners. Clocks which would | | | | shadow of the day. Some communities marked |
| be recognizable to modern people had been | | | | high noon by dropping a large ball from a clock |
| around for several centuries before 1855. People | | | | tower, or firing a canon, or sometimes having a |
| living then anywhere in the U.S. would have had | | | | tower clock centrally located chime the occasion |
| timepieces, probably windup pocket watches to | | | | with a loud bell. Individuals with clocks in their |
| take time with them and longcase pendulum | | | | homes or pocket watches set their time |
| clocks in their homes. | | | | accordingly. And, in many towns throughout the |
| So the question was -- who kept the "master | | | | West there was a local jeweler who would be |
| timepiece," who knew what the local time was. | | | | happy to set your watch for you. |
| And, very importantly, what "time zone" was a | | | | Time zones were so unorganized in the 1850s, |
| given town or farm located in during the 1850s in | | | | however, that a trip out of town meant changing |
| the West? How did people keep such matters | | | | your time about a minute for each nine or 10 |
| straight. | | | | miles east or west. |
| If you guessed that timekeeping and such things | | | | For better or worse, the railroads settled and |
| as time zones were in great disarray early in the | | | | shaped the West in multitudes of ways -- even |
| period we think of as the "Old West," you | | | | down to creating time zones, thus making sure |
| guessed correctly. Time keeping and such things | | | | everyone knew what time it was. |